The European Football Championship 2024 will be broadcast in Germany by Telekom. As expected, the company secured the rights to the home tournament in just under five years, as announced on Wednesday in Munich. Thus, ARD and ZDF were the first time no longer awarded the TV rights to the continental tournament. However, as well as private television stations, they have the opportunity to acquire sublicences from Telekom and thereby still be able to show live pictures of the tournament in Germany.
After already reported in September on the impending deal, the Telekom made it officially on Wednesday. The agreement on media rights with the European Football Union Uefa includes the exclusive exploitation rights for all 51 games.
All games of the German national football team and other European Championship matches will be free to receive, it said. This also applies to the semi-finals and the final. Telekom is also investigating possible sublicensing to a free TV partner. In addition to the public-law, the private broadcaster RTL is considered a candidate; RTL is currently showing European Championship qualifiers for the German team.
Federico Gambarini DPA
RTL is considered a competitor of ARD and ZDF to the sublicense
The 2024 games will be broadcast on Telekom's TV and streaming platforms. In Germany, they should be accessible to the entire society nationwide. "We are proud to announce the EM in their own country as the partner of Uefa at MagentaTV and MagentaSport and we will do everything we can to make the home European championship a feast for the fans and everyone can be there," says Michael Hagspihl. CEO private customers of the Telekom, according to a message. It will use the technical know-how, "to offer all spectators a unique and innovative football experience."
The European Football Championships have been firmly in the hands of ARD and ZDF. It is different in the coverage of the World Championships. At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, a German private broadcaster had broadcasted World Cup matches live on Sat.1 for the first time. RTL had shown some games in 2006 and 2010. The pay-TV channel Premiere, now called Sky, was there three times from 2002 to 2010.
The Telekom has so far only minor sports rights. Among other things, it shows the basketball league, the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) and live games from the third football league as a pay offer. Most recently, the games of the World Basketball Championship at Magenta were shown on the internet free of charge.